Read Online Cold Case in Cherokee Crossing by Rita Herron - Free Book Online

coaxed Avery toward the door, before he strangled the woman to death himself.
    * * *
    A VERY SANK INTO the passenger seat, her heart hammering.
    When she was little, she’d been scared of Joleen, not because she’d ever hit her, but she’d yelled and cursed and said horrible things to her. Had told her she was worthless and that was the reason no family wanted her.
    And after Wade started coming into the room at night, she’d accused Avery of being a dirty girl.
    She had felt dirty back then. Had felt as though she must have done something wrong to have brought that man to her bed.
    Looking back, she realized that she hadn’t done anything wrong. She was a child caught in a terrible situation.
    In fact, she’d covered herself in clothes, long baggy shirts and sweatpants.
    Anything to keep him from looking at her.
    But it hadn’t made a difference.
    “Are you all right?” Jaxon asked as he slid into the seat beside her.
    Avery leaned her head on her hand. “Yes. I...can’t believe I used to be afraid of her. That I let her make me feel like I was nothing. She’s pathetic.”
    “Yes, she is.” Jaxon angled himself toward her. “I know it took a lot of courage for you to face her.”
    His praise nearly brought her to tears. She’d grown so accustomed to people being cruel to her or judging her by her past that when someone treated her with kindness, it touched her deeply.
    Jaxon started the engine. “She was lying. She knew her husband was coming into your room.”
    “Of course she did, and she allowed it to happen,” Avery said. “Like I said, she didn’t want him touching her, so she was happy to let him use me.”
    A muscle ticked in his jaw. “She might have not minded,” he admitted. “Then again, if she was afraid of him, maybe she sneaked back and killed him, then let Hank take the fall.”
    “You think that’s possible?”
    “I think she might be more cunning than you gave her credit for.” And if she had killed Mulligan, she needed to pay.

Chapter Seven
    As Jaxon drove away from the complex, he contemplated the theory that Joleen had actually lied about being with her mother or returned home that night. Money hadn’t been a motive.
    But she could have come in, realized her husband was at it again and snapped.
    Or could she have planned it—lied and said she was going to take care of her mother, waited till night, then sneaked back and stabbed him.
    Maybe Avery had witnessed the murder and been so traumatized that she’d blocked it out. When Hank had seen Wade dead on the floor, he’d assumed his sister had stabbed Mulligan, and lied to protect her.
    The scenario made sense. Not that he could sell it to a judge without proof.
    More questions nagged at him. If Joleen had been drinking as much back then as she was now, would she have been able to pull off a murder without Avery or Hank knowing she was in the house?
    Hell, could she even have driven?
    But if Avery were right, that the woman welcomed the fact that he used her for sex instead of his wife, then she had no motive.
    “I don’t know, Jaxon,” Avery said. “Joleen was really meek around her husband. I can’t imagine her standing up for me by killing him. I don’t think she cared enough.”
    That was even sadder. “I can’t believe that social worker placed you with that family.”
    Avery sighed. “She said she didn’t have a lot of options. Joleen was right. No one wanted me and Hank, not with our father incarcerated for murder.”
    “Tell me about him,” Jaxon said.
    Bitter memories washed over her. “I was four, Hank nine. My father was upset over my mother leaving. He got in a bar fight and killed a man the same night.”
    “So you lost both your parents at once?”
    She nodded, remembering how confused she’d been. Hank had been her rock.
    But the stigma of being a jailbird kid had made her life more difficult. And then her brother had ended up in prison for homicide, as well.
    Jaxon’s pulse kicked up. “Did